‘Fuck,’ Adrian said.

The Coley murder was particularly long and hideous. The videos were all terrible resolution and in all of them the killer’s face was obscured, even though Adrian knew who the killer was. It was one thing to theoretically understand where Parker was coming from, it was another thing to witness the calm cold-bloodedness of his crimes.

‘Whoever this guy is, he’s messed up. He shouldn’t be on the streets,’ Gary said, shooting yet another dirty look at Adrian.

‘Can you enhance the resolution at all?’ DCI Kapoor asked.

‘I’ve been trying. Crap hardware and lens means it’s not necessarily something that can be enhanced,’ Gary said.

‘We’ll never get a conviction from it, even if we knew who was doing it. The resolution is terrible and if you say you can’t enhance it then we definitely need much more than this. You can’t even tell if it’s a male or a female,’ DCI Kapoor said. ‘If we are to believe Finn Blackwell then this could be Russ Beacham. We need to find him. That’s assuming Blackwell can be trusted. What do we really know about him?’

‘Didn’t get the right grades, same as the others. Been picked up twice by us before, once when I saw him and another time for causing a bit of a scene in Princesshay Shopping Centre; he urinated on one of the statues and someone called the cops. He wasn’t charged either time.’

‘Maybe you should go and speak to the other kids in the halls and see if they know anything about him. They might be able to tell you who has been visiting him or what hours he keeps, when he goes out, who with, if he is an easy neighbour or a troublemaker, et cetera. We need a more complete profile of this boy,’ DCI Kapoor said.

‘OK, Ma’am.’ Adrian said.

‘Get to it, then,’ she said, beginning to usher them out.

Gary picked his laptop up and left the room. Adrian shot a questioning look at Imogen, who nodded for him to go after Gary. Adrian rushed out and down the corridor, grabbing hold of Gary’s arm.

‘Is this what you’re upset about? The video?’

Gary leaned forward and whispered, ‘Aren’t you? You’re covering for this guy.’

‘No, I won’t cover for him. He knows I will bring him in if needs be,’ Adrian said, letting go of Gary’s arm.

‘I’m not sure I believe that.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘I don’t know,’ Gary said. ‘I wish you hadn’t told me about him.’

‘First you’re angry because we didn’t tell you and now you’re angry because we did?’ Adrian said.

‘Did they really deserve this? Does anyone?’ Gary pointed at the screen where Coley’s body lay strapped to the desk, his back sliced open, what was left of his spine exposed.

‘Maybe. I don’t know. Maybe some people do deserve it,’ Adrian said.

‘If you really believe that then you’re not the person I thought you were.’

‘All I’m saying is that it’s not always black and white. If you had seen what they did to that man as a kid, then you would have thought twice about arresting him, too. They photographed most of the torture they put him through; we can go down to evidence and look at it, if you want? You wouldn’t want to punish him any more than he has been.’